Squash 40 - Jan W3 22

SINGLE CHART

Three weeks in and it's a kaleidoscope of new faces, names and bops over on the SQ40. Whilst the revolving door quote remains the same from last week (13 exits, 10 new entries + 3 re-entries), it is interesting to note that the majority of these appear in the bottom half of the chart meaning the top 20 sticks relatively closely to one another for this new 7 day rank. Another contradictory set of facts are that although the Asia region has a rare week of dominance in terms of entries (13/40 being from the grand continent), it is the Kpop gals that are roaring through for medal positions as the K-release cycle starts to whir into motion for 2022. K-Pop notoriously has a headlock on the SQ singles chart upper echelons (as opposed to the struggle bus of their Album chart performances) and it appears this year may be no exception.

Up at the very top a double-bill of new entries duke it out for gold and silver shinies as bonkers newcomers Billlie (of the the "Ls") and their Twin Peaks/M Night Shamalyan murder-mystery Ring x Ring beat out IZ*ONE alumni Yena's Disney super-hero pop-rock anthem Smiley to this week's #1. Despite charting on the Water Kpop Squash Chart in Week 1 2022, Ring x Ring has only now managed to chime its way through into pole position whereas Yena almost matches her ex-band's brief success on the SQ with a #2 debut, one place behind IZ*ONE's highest charting single 2019 #1 Violeta (one of only 3 charting songs from the temporary TV show created group during their timeframe - the others being La Vie En Rose and Panorama).

Also on the K-Pop frontlines (or related to the troops), cute-chic fromis_9 delve back into retro-pop with the cryptically titled DM (#16) and Chinese former Miss A member Fei adds another string to her 2022 solo career campaign's bow with the mythological booty-call moment Hunting Adonis 狩猎阿多尼斯 (#19). All three re-entries come from 2022's Week 1 in the shape of DADARAY's Gals rollercoaster-like chart journey coming back in at #15, Karencici re-adding her album's title track (99% Angel, #26) to make her SQ40 appearances rise to 3 songs and the delicate sounds of BOWKYLION (Best Wishes บานปลาย, #27).

ALBUM CHART

As reflected in the singles chart, it's Kpop and Asia holding the reins on the Album collective at this point in 2022's early moments. Karencici adds another percentile to her score with a 3rd week at #1, Taiwanese indie-folk band Shallow Levée peacefully strum in with their second album in less than a year (Endless Playlist 婚禮之途, #3) and DADARAY, Billlie, Cignature and K-Pop legend Younha all see bumps to their previous week placements at #2, #4, #5 and #6 respectively. Our highest non-Asian continent collection ironically comes from the yet-to-be-released Life in Plastic (#8) by queer British singer-songwriter Tom Aspaul, based on the strength of its lead single (Let Them [It's All Love], SQ40 #6). I'm secretly hoping he'll represent the UK in Eurovision 2022 with such an apologetically gay pop anthem as this but we all know we'll get something crap and honestly it's what the country deserves at this point.